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Marvel Studios: The Marvel Cinematic Universe - An Official Timeline
Become a master of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is vast, incredibly varied, and richly complex. Different worlds, different timelines, countless characters. This is the guide to that universe. Created in close collaboration with Marvel Studios, it will answer the biggest what happened, when, where, and why.
Follow the entire story of the MCU from before the Big Bang to the Blip and beyond. Along the way, learn more about the evolution of the Iron Man armors, the hunt for the Infinity Stones, and the formation of the Multiverse. Want to know how many times aliens have invaded Earth, or the complete history of Cap’s shield? Look no further!
A treasured keepsake for any movie buff, filled with exclusive infographics, illuminating timelines, and amazing movie stills, this book will have pride of place on any MCU fan’s shelf.
© 2023 MARVEL
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is vast, incredibly varied, and richly complex. Different worlds, different timelines, countless characters. This is the guide to that universe. Created in close collaboration with Marvel Studios, it will answer the biggest what happened, when, where, and why.
Follow the entire story of the MCU from before the Big Bang to the Blip and beyond. Along the way, learn more about the evolution of the Iron Man armors, the hunt for the Infinity Stones, and the formation of the Multiverse. Want to know how many times aliens have invaded Earth, or the complete history of Cap’s shield? Look no further!
A treasured keepsake for any movie buff, filled with exclusive infographics, illuminating timelines, and amazing movie stills, this book will have pride of place on any MCU fan’s shelf.
© 2023 MARVEL
344 pages, Hardcover
First published October 24, 2023
67 people are currently reading
365 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Breznican
7 books156 followersAnthony Breznican is a reporter who has worked for The Arizona Republic, the Associated Press, USA Today, and is currently on staff at Entertainment Weekly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
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November 14, 2023Once again DK proves why it does comic publications so well. Known for a vast assortment of coffee table classics on superheroes, they have given readers the ultimate with MARVEL STUDIOS THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.
I can honestly say I have not watched even a quarter of the 32 Marvel movies produced, and none of the more than 20 television shows, that have been created based on Marvel characters. But that should not deter others with the same view rate to pass this book by.
Growing up with Marvel comics in the 1960’s, I remember a vast number of the characters noted in the book, but am amazed at the hundreds more characters that have been created in the pages of the comics, and are center stage in the movies.
The book is most thorough, in that it not only follows the more recent events in the movie world, but also studies the multiverses that characters have lived in, died in, been resurrected in, and continue to be pivotal characters in the movies now and those to come.
The book is sequential, starting in the distant past when the world was first created, and in pre-history we view the characters who have watched the universe for millennia, and are now making their presence known. The Eternals were part of that world protecting it.
The Common Era is explored, where Asgard is created along with Odin and Frigga and Thor and Loki are part of this world. Then the book vaults into the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, where Steve Rogers becomes Captain America and Bucky Barnes becomes a sidekick of sorts.
This is not a book that can read in a short period of time. It was meant to be savored, because if one is not up to date on most facets of the Marvel universe, it could be more than overwhelming. It is most complex, and the authors have meticulously shown every major and minor character, where their actions and reactions have altered the playing field either on Earth, or some alternate Universe.
With a WHAT IF section at the back, and the official Marvel Universe Timeline compressed into under a dozen pages, this is one book you will refer to often as more movies are released. It is definitely a must-read for Marvel movie fanatics, and anyone who has grown up with Marvel comics as well.
I can honestly say I have not watched even a quarter of the 32 Marvel movies produced, and none of the more than 20 television shows, that have been created based on Marvel characters. But that should not deter others with the same view rate to pass this book by.
Growing up with Marvel comics in the 1960’s, I remember a vast number of the characters noted in the book, but am amazed at the hundreds more characters that have been created in the pages of the comics, and are center stage in the movies.
The book is most thorough, in that it not only follows the more recent events in the movie world, but also studies the multiverses that characters have lived in, died in, been resurrected in, and continue to be pivotal characters in the movies now and those to come.
The book is sequential, starting in the distant past when the world was first created, and in pre-history we view the characters who have watched the universe for millennia, and are now making their presence known. The Eternals were part of that world protecting it.
The Common Era is explored, where Asgard is created along with Odin and Frigga and Thor and Loki are part of this world. Then the book vaults into the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, where Steve Rogers becomes Captain America and Bucky Barnes becomes a sidekick of sorts.
This is not a book that can read in a short period of time. It was meant to be savored, because if one is not up to date on most facets of the Marvel universe, it could be more than overwhelming. It is most complex, and the authors have meticulously shown every major and minor character, where their actions and reactions have altered the playing field either on Earth, or some alternate Universe.
With a WHAT IF section at the back, and the official Marvel Universe Timeline compressed into under a dozen pages, this is one book you will refer to often as more movies are released. It is definitely a must-read for Marvel movie fanatics, and anyone who has grown up with Marvel comics as well.
October 31, 2023
Kinda gave me a headache because the timeline is real messy. But it was really fun finally seeing it all laid out exactly as it’s meant to be experienced. And nice to not have to speculate on when things happen.
November 6, 2025
FINAL REVIEW: Wow, this was even better than I expected! This must have been just a massive undertaking; I don't know how they got everything organized and cross-coordinated here, but the end result was equally impressive, informative and entertaining, (although I'm still not sure yet whether I now understand everything better or am even MORE confused...). Only possible criticism is it would be nice if they keyed some of the events/characters to the movie/show they came from, as lacking that I found myself having to Google a lot of things.
The book indeed covers everything from the creation of the infinity stones at the dawn of time up through all of Phase Four, and so includes such recent shows/films as "Moon Knight," "She-Hulk," "Thor: Love and Thunder" and "Wakanda Forever;" and so stopping (wisely) right before "Secret Invasion." Now it's time to rewatch pretty much all of the "confusing stuff; i.e., everything from "Infinity War" onward...
Where the confusing stuff begins: the multiple timelines of the time heist in "End Games," along with Loki dropping out and then popping up in the TVA.
Just more of the "cool extras"...
___________________________________
ORIGINAL COMMENTS: Perfect book to start my retirement with, as this DK doorstop will keep my inner geek busy for weeks, both by itself and then the mandatory watching of missing pieces (or rewatching of confusing key ones, like "Loki").
Telling the MCU story from the very beginning of the universe (yep, it goes back that far) right up through 2025, the book interweaves all the various films and shows in true timeline style:
…with the occasional topical "insert:"
Anyway, very cool and no way I'll finish in the three weeks allotted by the library — but turns out Amazon is offering it (at least at the moment) for just $20, or about 60% off list…so my own "keeper copy" is on the way!
The book indeed covers everything from the creation of the infinity stones at the dawn of time up through all of Phase Four, and so includes such recent shows/films as "Moon Knight," "She-Hulk," "Thor: Love and Thunder" and "Wakanda Forever;" and so stopping (wisely) right before "Secret Invasion." Now it's time to rewatch pretty much all of the "confusing stuff; i.e., everything from "Infinity War" onward...
Where the confusing stuff begins: the multiple timelines of the time heist in "End Games," along with Loki dropping out and then popping up in the TVA.
Just more of the "cool extras"...
___________________________________
ORIGINAL COMMENTS: Perfect book to start my retirement with, as this DK doorstop will keep my inner geek busy for weeks, both by itself and then the mandatory watching of missing pieces (or rewatching of confusing key ones, like "Loki").
Telling the MCU story from the very beginning of the universe (yep, it goes back that far) right up through 2025, the book interweaves all the various films and shows in true timeline style:
…with the occasional topical "insert:"
Anyway, very cool and no way I'll finish in the three weeks allotted by the library — but turns out Amazon is offering it (at least at the moment) for just $20, or about 60% off list…so my own "keeper copy" is on the way!
April 23, 2024
Solid guide and reference book in detail about the whole cinematic universe of all the Marvel Studios films and tv shows, with nice looking infographics and timelines on different characters, events and in chronological order of things happening throughout the films.
What was missing though was the most important one, a nice and good-looking infographic of the timeline to watch everything in chronological order, or even a simple checklist would be nice to have thrown in there.
Other than that a nice coffeetable book to have if you're a fan.
What was missing though was the most important one, a nice and good-looking infographic of the timeline to watch everything in chronological order, or even a simple checklist would be nice to have thrown in there.
Other than that a nice coffeetable book to have if you're a fan.
February 14, 2024
Amazing book about the MCU, but it’s limited to the films and the newer Disney Plus shows like Loki, WandaVision, Hawkeye, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. None of my favorite shows are talked about at all: No Agents of SHIELD. No Defenders. No Runaways or Cloak and Dagger.
I’m a hardcore Marvel fan, and the TV shows are more than half of the story in my opinion, so the fact that they’re only focusing on the films and the movie characters who get their own shows makes me a little disappointed. Would’ve loved an Agents of SHIELD timeline, but I guess that’s asking for too much, even though the show ended 4 years ago.
The timeline of the films are extensive and cover almost everything that happens, so that’s a heavy plus, and deserves a couple of stars. It also does a good job at marking origin moments and protagonist/hero deaths when they happen.
Overall a valuable resource for the first four phases of the MCU, but since there’s bound to be more added to the timeline, and since none of the good 2010s shows are added, the timeline feels incomplete.
I’m a hardcore Marvel fan, and the TV shows are more than half of the story in my opinion, so the fact that they’re only focusing on the films and the movie characters who get their own shows makes me a little disappointed. Would’ve loved an Agents of SHIELD timeline, but I guess that’s asking for too much, even though the show ended 4 years ago.
The timeline of the films are extensive and cover almost everything that happens, so that’s a heavy plus, and deserves a couple of stars. It also does a good job at marking origin moments and protagonist/hero deaths when they happen.
Overall a valuable resource for the first four phases of the MCU, but since there’s bound to be more added to the timeline, and since none of the good 2010s shows are added, the timeline feels incomplete.
November 27, 2024
Great organization of a ever growing complicated time line
November 23, 2025
best thing ever
November 25, 2023
It was really fun to read everything by chronological order, since I'm used to seeing the movies and shows by release order. It helped make sense of some events, and it was also a fun callback to some of the earlier installments that I noticed I didn't remember so well! Recommend this for every MCU fan!
January 12, 2025
"Avengers... Assemble!"
June 10, 2025
This book is pretty awesome pretty much detailing every event in the MCU up until a certain point. It doesnt have the movies and shows that released after this book, and I like the meta reason as the book is guided by Miss Minutes, commenting on potential mistakes and missing pieces. In the introduction she says something like “sometimes the TVA is behind and gets it wrong”, serving as a clever way to explain how future books may have different events as the story continues.
I skimmed and jumped around and theres a few things I found disappointing. I noticed there was no mention of when the jump pads were made or discovered (unless I missed it). The defenders saga is excluded, and theres no mention of other things in limbo like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Miss Minutes introduction serves as a potential reason they arent there, but it would still be nice to see them mentioned. I wouldve also like to see some reference to the timelines of other known universes.
Im definitely hoping they release a book like this from here on out after each saga, and Im hoping the next one delves into the other universes and their designations and the great omniverse; and maybe a shorter timeline more simply plotting each movie or show and map of where a lot of characters are during these times, as theres is a lot of information to take in just reading a raw timeline, and watching the movies can sometimes be difficult to keep track of everything
I skimmed and jumped around and theres a few things I found disappointing. I noticed there was no mention of when the jump pads were made or discovered (unless I missed it). The defenders saga is excluded, and theres no mention of other things in limbo like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Miss Minutes introduction serves as a potential reason they arent there, but it would still be nice to see them mentioned. I wouldve also like to see some reference to the timelines of other known universes.
Im definitely hoping they release a book like this from here on out after each saga, and Im hoping the next one delves into the other universes and their designations and the great omniverse; and maybe a shorter timeline more simply plotting each movie or show and map of where a lot of characters are during these times, as theres is a lot of information to take in just reading a raw timeline, and watching the movies can sometimes be difficult to keep track of everything
December 31, 2024
I love this book.
It’s basically an encyclopaedia that includes every official Marvel Cinematic Universe project From Iron Man all the way up to the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special. The layout of the book is really great: it puts the events of the movies and TV shows in chronological order and provides the key plot points of each project to such an extent that a non-Marvel fan wouldn’t need to watch any of it because all the information that they need in this book. Every few pages, there are infographics about certain characters, places and events that add onto the information that has already been provided that are pretty cool too. There are also tons of screenshots from all of the projects included as well, which for me personally made the book more engaging. The only downside to it is that it doesn’t include shows like Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil, Jessica Jones and others like that, only series from Wandavision onwards. If you are a fan of the Marvel films and TV shows like I am, then I strongly recommend that you get this book.
It’s basically an encyclopaedia that includes every official Marvel Cinematic Universe project From Iron Man all the way up to the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special. The layout of the book is really great: it puts the events of the movies and TV shows in chronological order and provides the key plot points of each project to such an extent that a non-Marvel fan wouldn’t need to watch any of it because all the information that they need in this book. Every few pages, there are infographics about certain characters, places and events that add onto the information that has already been provided that are pretty cool too. There are also tons of screenshots from all of the projects included as well, which for me personally made the book more engaging. The only downside to it is that it doesn’t include shows like Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil, Jessica Jones and others like that, only series from Wandavision onwards. If you are a fan of the Marvel films and TV shows like I am, then I strongly recommend that you get this book.
December 1, 2023
The Marvel Studios: The Marvel Cinematic Universe - An Official Timeline is so cool. It does a fantastic job of laying out everything out in chronological order and saves us from speculating on when certain things happen, especially the more recent projects. As it is so new, it does not cover Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, Secret Invasion, The Marvels, and the second season of Loki. I really liked seeing Agent Carter featured - I miss that show so much! I also liked that Miss Minutes "writes" the Introduction and has little notes sprinkled throughout. It was also very cool that Loki's timeline from the events of his tv series follow a separate green timeline. I miss Loki, Mobius and the whole gang already.
January 28, 2025
In the 70s, I discovered comics. I was ten years old. More than fifty years later, I still love them, and what Marvel is now putting up on the screen? Yeah, that's a comic geek's dream come true.
I honestly thought I pretty much had the timeline worked out in my head. But this book, while it starts simple, does a great job of laying out the "what happened when" stuff in this big, messy universe.
And one thing I was surprised about? There's surprisingly few timeline gaffs that have occurred over the years. That's impressive, and so is this book. The only thing is, give it a few more years, and they're going to have to completely revise it and tuck in all the other stuff.
I honestly thought I pretty much had the timeline worked out in my head. But this book, while it starts simple, does a great job of laying out the "what happened when" stuff in this big, messy universe.
And one thing I was surprised about? There's surprisingly few timeline gaffs that have occurred over the years. That's impressive, and so is this book. The only thing is, give it a few more years, and they're going to have to completely revise it and tuck in all the other stuff.
May 20, 2024
This book breaks down the timeline of every major event in the MCU up to the first season of What If. It includes separate timelines for major characters and objects. It also has little notes from Miss Minutes offering possibly explains for some of the inconsistencies. Really good resource if you are doing any sort of MCU related projects. Also just fun to read for better understand of the MCU. If you are not a fan of the Marvel movies this book is not really going to do anything for you.
March 16, 2025
The ultimate guide to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of the articulate storyline if the MCU, well this book is an absolute powerhouse, showing each event in timeliness order, not movie order, but the events that occur in the movies, and when they happen in comparison. It also goes in depth on some key characters and story arcs! An amazing book and an intriguing read for even me, who knows the MCU like the back of my hand😅
May 4, 2025
Definitive chronology of all the Marvel movies and the TV series. Good reference, and fun to see it all in order and find relations (like what was happening during the time Dr Strange was trying to surgically fix his hands). My only wish for this book would have been to include the Marvel shows not from Disney + like Agents of Shield and the Netflicks series.
May 30, 2025
I've been clamouring for something like this forever. My only nitpick is that it isn't comprehensive enough, I still found smaller details were omitted from the timeline in the book itself.
However this is a treasure trove for anyone who is a fan of the MCU. looking forward to the inevitable updated and revised edition that will surely come out once the Multiverse Saga comes to a close
However this is a treasure trove for anyone who is a fan of the MCU. looking forward to the inevitable updated and revised edition that will surely come out once the Multiverse Saga comes to a close
October 7, 2024
This is a great book that covers everything the Marvel Cinematic Universe all in one book. DK proves once again how good it is with books like that. I borrowed the book from the library, but would love to get my hands on a copy of the book.
April 25, 2025
Literally a recap of all the events of the movies/projects in the MCU up to the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special. Nice images, and a clear timeline for general audiences, but if you're already a big fan of the MCU, there isn't really anything in here that you didn't already know.
December 7, 2023
Book is done really well however you can see the decline of Marvel clearly and how much content they now make
December 15, 2023
I could stare at this giant, beautiful book for years and never fully absorb all it has to offer.
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January 9, 2024This was just what I needed.
January 9, 2024
A really fun read, especially if you've seen all of the MCU movies. It was interesting to see what events were happening simultaneously in the MCU, like GOTG 1 & 2 pretty much happened back to back.
February 20, 2024
This is a must have book for all Marvel fans. It puts everything into timeline order and context. It’s in my Amazon cart.
February 23, 2024
Super fun!
Want to read
March 13, 2024got for christmas, need to read
June 1, 2024
Definitely THE MCU Bible until we get the New Testament. Comprehensive. I can see this being brought out to settle a lot of trivia debates.
June 16, 2024
I mean, it's what I expected. A Marvel timeline with some lore drops, and as a Marvel fan, I enjoyed it.
July 19, 2024
I breezed through this after scoring the e-book for $2.99 on Prime Day (winning.) I know the MCU fairly inside and out so I will like having it as a reference book when those obscure facts elude me.
August 3, 2024
Awesome coffee table book! Cool to read alongside the movies and see how it all lines up to the last scene and detail.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews